Welcome to Facts, not fantasy. This is a "learning node" of the internet where we try to clear up some misconceptions and lies that are going around about vaccines and evolution. Click on the main item of interest (Vaccines or Evolution) and you should find a list of "points" that you are free to use (or research). All we ask is that you link back to this page if you use anything from it.
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Thursday, March 29, 2012

Evolution and Vaccination - A destruction of an anti-vaccine argument

It's no secret that a lot of the
anti-vaccine movement exists due to the ignorance of parents who need to
make decisions with their child's healthcare. Anti-Vaccine portrays
themselves as scientists when they are not often using acronyms and
official sounding degrees and lab coats to make themselves seem like
they are professionals.

They work by creating unreasonable doubt
and by portraying their qualifications as equal to a medic when in
reality they generally follow incredibly outdated medical practices and
ideas that are laughably out dated in a science that is moving at a
pretty hefty pace. They lie and portray deadly diseases as "harmless"
and easily controlled by nutrition, vitamins and magic water.

They
show a complete lack of understanding of statistics, probability and
actual terminology and appeal to ideas like "souls", "harmony",
"balance" and "energy". Words which mean very little in terms of the
biochemical machine that is your body and are even more vague when one
asks them to describe a medical condition.

Today we deal with Vactruth's
article by Bunny St. Marie on Vaccine Resistant Pathogens. And it is
basically a collection of incredibly daft ideas that need to be
dismantled comprehensively lest I be accused of quote mining and taking
ideas out of context.

You would probably laugh at the absurdity of it—dangerous mutant
invaders, seemingly by stealth, plotting a massive attack against the
human race.

But, what if you discovered those mutants would be invisible to the
naked eye? Would you still have a hard time believing such a story?
Believe it or not, many scientists have begun warning us about that
exact scenario, with one exception: Microscopic viruses and bacteria are
actually playing the roles of the mutants.

Evil Mutants!

Real Mutants

Medically speaking we are all mutants.
Every single goddamn one of us is a mutant and has at some point had a
mutation. Using such language in a medical explanation is fraught with
peril since we are confusing what the word mutant means.

A mutant
is any organism with a genetic variation from the fused original genome
created at fertilisation. It can either be expressed as a local
mutation (eg. Cancer) or a silent mutation (eg. Most People will
probably have one cell with a silent mutation) or a germ line mutation
(your kids will express a mutation.)

The best example of a mutant is the good olde humble wheat plant.

It's
a single and simple mutation that made this plant one of the earliest
domesticated crops and it's a mutation that's common to all crop plants.
Tame wheat has a mutation that prevents it from spreading it's seeds.
It does not shed it's seeds and they ripen on the plant.

Now
normally this is a massive disadvantage except, if there is a species
out there that actively promotes this mutation. Spreading it across the
world and actively killing individuals of this species that do not show
the mutation. Now this mutation would be an advantage. Which is why
there are more tame wheat plants out there than wild wheat. We actively
protect wheat from predators, disease and spread the seeds hence the
mutation is common.

Not so scary now right? The usage of mutant
is to scare the fuck out of people. It's a calculated accusation made by
Bunny to scare people into thinking of these mutants as the twisted
warped individuals because she is trying to imply that vaccination
somehow causes mutation. And she does this with the grace and panache of
a blancmange.

I like my mutants like I like my scotch, 13 - 18 years old, green and ninja.

The simple fact is this: You have been advised by your doctor to rely on vaccines as a defense against microscopic invaders.

We
actually encourage a variety of defences against infection ranging from
"Washing your hands" to "Vaccination" to "Pasteurisation" to "Cooking Your Goddamn Turkey"

But what happens when a pathogen manages to outsmart such
pharmaceutical measures? We may be finding out sooner than expected.
Here’s why.

Pathogens
such as bacteria and viruses cannot outsmart anything because they
don't have brains. They are evolving. The mechanism of their evolution
is random and driven by their massive reproduction rates. They aren't
trying to "outsmart medical technology" they are doing so to survive. If
they do not evolve they die. Smallpox is an example of a pathogen that
didn't evolve. Polio is an example of one that probably won't evolve by
the time we make it extinct. The nature of these viruses was to affect
only humans and that specificity was both the reason for their success
and the reason for why vaccination is so succesful against them.

Then there were the recent measles outbreaks occurring in both the
U.S.A. and Canada. Sporadic outbreaks of meningitis also have been
reported around the globe over the last couple years. Just this year, an
outbreak of meningitis was reported in the States. [1]

The
recent measles outbreak in the USA is mainly seen in unvaccinated
groups of people as the vaccination rate of both countries had dropped
quite heftily due to the efforts of anti-vaccine and autism activists
who believe in the MMR link. This produced a fairly hefty fall in
vaccination rates allowing for the reoccurence of measles.

A
quick check shows that between 2007 to 2008 in the Israeli Measles
outbreak majority affected were orthodox and hassidic jews who do not
vaccinate. France's low measles vaccination rate resulted in roughly
7000 cases in the first three months of 2011.

And lest we
forget. Measles in the DRC has killed 1145 children due to the low
vaccination and famine conditions but I am sure Bunny will blame the
famine more than the vaccination rate and indeed claim that it's a
perfectly harmless disease (If you are lucky enough to be born in the
first world where fancy medicine prevents you from dying.)

And
the most telling statistic is that in 2011 the CDC stated that it had
118 cases. Of 118 cases, 105 were not vaccinated. (89%). The US outbreak
is actually rather small since the anti-vaccination and the fear of MMR
isn't as hefty as seen in the UK where there were are roughly a 1100
cases a year and rising due to the lack of vaccination due to
anti-vaccine fear mongers. Every single case, more people who were
unvaccinated were affected than those who were vaccinated.

And this is without her first source which is from here.
The vaccine we give is for pneumococcus (Streptococcus Pneumoniae)
which can cause meningitis. The outbreak is for meningococcus (Neisseria
Meningitidis). They are entirely different diseases caused by entirely
different bacteria.

The issue that a lot of people have is the
assumption that all bacteria are the same. The difference between these
two bacteria is enormous. As wide an evolutionary gap as ant and human.
They both belong to the kingdom of bacteria but diverge at the phylum
level at a fundemental scale. Pneumococcus is a gram positive bacteria
while Meningococcus is a gram negative bacteria. It may sound petty and
small but it's a massive and monsterous difference to anyone who has
read about microbiology. To mistake the two is not a fundemental error
when dealing on organisms on this scale. It is idiocy.

Streptococcus

Neisseria

These were both stained with the same
staining method and the difference is clear as day since streptococcus
forms violet chains of cocci while neisseria does not appearing as pink
binary forms. But clearly Bunny didn't check any of this before making
her fallacious claim.

The meningococcus vaccine is a recent invention. It is being rolled out as we speak. We do really want a vaccine against this horrific disease and it's recent approval still means it hasn't been widely taken up and it isn't a compulsary vaccine yet.

As
a parent, you are told if your children are vaccinated they are
‘protected’; yet many of the outbreaks have occurred in fully immunized
populations. So what’s going on? Some argue outbreaks may have
originated from a foreign traveler or
possibly from children whose parents chose to exempt them from vaccines.
While others feel a far more worrying mechanism is at work. One
possibility being common pathogens have mutated and not only become
resistant to vaccines, but also potentially more deadly.

No.
Many of these outbreaks occured in populations where vaccination rates
are shrinking and where many people have lapsed their vaccines or
avoided boosters. And bear in mind the UK's "full vaccinated" rate of
measles is the same as the DRC's mortality rate from measles and you
quickly realise how effective vaccination really is. What Bunny has done
is tried to portray the American Public as heavily vaccinated while
failing to mention that most cases as reported by the CDC (which no
doubt she refuses to trust) are from unvaccinated groups or from
diseases that people haven't been vaccinated for.

And a
vaccine is not 100%. No one said it was. Nothing is 100%.. You can
still catch a disease that you have been vaccinated for, it's just that
it is a lot more unlikely than before.

It's the
equivalent of wearing bullet proof armour in a gun battle. Sure you may
not get hit but why take the chance. It is the equivalent of not wearing
a seatbelt in a car. Sure you may not get into an accident but why take
the chance. You may not get measles but why risk it by not vaccinating.
And the statistics were clear on this. At one point everyone got the
measles. Not vaccinating will result in a re-establishment of rates.
This much is clear in the UK where the number of cases has risen
courtesy of the MMR/Autism link lobby and their arch-quack, Andrew
Wakefield.

Added to which pertussis is almost unheard
of in children and mainly affects older adults and infants as pertussis
immunity wears off rapidly even from natural infection (at the same rate
as the vaccine) and adults don't keep up with booster shots.

For example, a particular study published in 2010 mentions the rising
increase of whooping cough cases may be caused in part to the use of
acellular pertussis vaccines resulting in the adaptation of circulating
pertussis strains. [2]

Here Bunny shows a phenomenal ignorance of what the scientific paper is about. In her mind the vaccine somehow mutates the bacteria.

What
the study shows is the change in allele frequency in pertussis strains
caused by vaccination. There are local antigenic variations and the
pertussis vaccine that is currently used is the acellular vaccine (the
Whole Cell Vaccine causes a bigger reaction but with greater side
effects such as fever as the body recognises the whole bacteria and
activates a proper immune response). The acellular vaccine has a lower
effectiveness rate (around 75% to 85%) but is preferred due to it's
safety profile.

Now what occured here is that various
antigens of the most common strains were used in the vaccine to protect
against them. Thus leaving the least common strains partially protected
or with no protection at all. This results in a prevention of infection
by the most common strains which quickly reduce while the least common
ones are not affected as much until we reach the situation where the
previous common strains have become rarer. As seen in the case wher
MT70's incidence drops below MT10 in the UK due to MT70's usage in the
vaccine.

What Bunny is demonstrating is a phenomenal
ignorance of how evolution works. You don't evolve to meet a threat. You
evolve over generations rather than as a single individual and if you
can survive a change of environment you survive, if you cannot you go
extinct. What we see here is allele frequency alteration due to the
arrival of the vaccine and the reduction in possible prey for the common
strain.

Another study led by Dr. Frits Mooi suggests whooping cough vaccines
are becoming less effective due to certain strains of pertussis
adapting, and that these emerging new strains are likely more virulent.
Indeed, the epidemiologic data found an association between these new
strains and an increased infant mortality rate. [3]

This study into virulence
is quite interesting. Basically it boils down to comparing two of the
common strains of pertussis and some astute observations. It basically
looks at the allele frequency changes of Pertussis Toxin 1 vs Pertussis
Toxin 3.

Now basically Pertussis Toxin is not normally
excreted by the bacteria. There is a disadvantage to wanton usage
possibly a negative metabolic effect making toxin 3 rarer pre-vaccine.
The paper mentions this. However in a host they both produce the toxin.
However after vaccination the incidence of pertussis toxin 1 went down
while toxin 3 went up. The net number of cases fell but there were still
incidents.

The paper points out that those with Toxin
3 are more virulent than Toxin 1. Not virulent enough to affect a fully
healthy adult with a vaccine but sufficient to create a latent or
silent infection. And then he points out what the cause of the increased
rate of infection is.

Dr. Mooi points out that the
main reason for this is PTx 3 has a immunosuppresant effect and in order
to overcome this increased virulence the body requires a longer period
of time to produce the necessary antibodies allowing for the potential
spread due to the increased efficacy of the toxin and the increased
production. PTx 1's lower virulence means that it is much more easily
killed off by the immune system. Dr. Mooi points out that the rise in
PTx3 has three main causes.

Firstly, vaccine quality
varies across the board. The quality of vaccine varies. He recommends
that vaccine quality be improved as he noted that recently vaccinated
children do not catch pertussis of either type. Their immune system
responds heavily.

Secondly, the current vaccines do not
produce antibodies against PTx3 and it's increased anti-immune effect.
Addition of antigens from PTx3 and 1 would improve the vaccines.

Thirdly,
adult vaccination is low and most adults are partially immunised
resulting in longer response times and spread of PTx3 allele variants.

In
short? Improve the Goddamn Vaccine and get adults boosters is this
man's conclusion. Bunny's is Do Not Vaccinate At All. Fuck the half a
million or so people a year the Pertussis vaccine saves. We shouldn't
vaccinate at all! That way we can lose more children to the disease
(roughly 80% of pertussis cases are in the 0-5 age group) and not have
to worry about an increased virulence that means nothing to someone who
is vaccinated. Never mind the fact that we can prevent this by improving
vaccination.

What’s even more shocking is, according to the CDC, vaccinated
children may actually be putting vulnerable loved ones at risk! A study
published in 2000 found that vaccinated children are not only at risk
for contracting pertussis after 4 to 5 years, but also may play a role
in transmitting pertussis to vulnerable loved ones via asymptomatic (or
silent) infection. [4]

The natural immunity for pertussis
also wanes after 4 to 5 years. This is why we use booster shots. If you
miss your boosters you can spread the disease. You don't gain a life
long immunity from pertussis and we specifically mention that you do not
gain such an immunity and require regular boosters in order to remain
immune.

And it does point out that the reduced immunity in those who were vaccinated but missed boosters and recommends booster shots.

This isn’t an isolated problem with pertussis, either. Scientists also speculate about measles becoming resistant to vaccines.

This
isn't a resistance to vaccines so much as a very minor latent infection
rather than coughing so hard you break a rib. The problem is Bunny is
embellishing the truth. Basically? Pertussis (a bacteria) has had an
allele frequency shift to a more virulent allele PTx3 which provides
better spread due to it's more toxic nature. This produces latent
infections which spread in the short period of time it takes to mobilise
an immune response and is mainly seen in vaccinated adults who lack the
full vaccine and can be corrected via the introduction of the PTx3
antigen to the acellular vaccine and by keeping up regular booster shots
even in adults to prevent the spread of this latent infection
(sub-clinical) to infants.

Now here is the thing. A tiny
experiment. Go get a bottle of coke and a white sheet of paper. Take a
small mouthful. Now cough before you swallow. Aim it at a white sheet of
paper. Notice the massive spray of coke on the white sheet.

Now
imagine a disease spread by coughing. For example... Pertussis. Can
anyone tell me why sub clinical pertussis with no cough is less likely
to spread as much and as far than pertussis with a cough?

I am
sure anyone can because we regularly deal with the Rhinovirus (cold). We
know that it spreads via cough and via the air yet Bunny clearly thinks
pertussis spread remains the same in such a situation.

A research team led by Dr. Claude Muller from the National Health
Laboratory in Luxembourg has reported circulating strains of measles in
Africa developing a significant level of resistance to the vaccines
currently being used. [5]

This
article specifically says in the first few lines that the reason why
resistant strains develops is poor vaccination. This is traditional
anti-vaccine failure of written comprehension to go with their
incredibly shoddy grasp of mathematics and their even worse grasp of
science. The resistance is being caused by people like Bunny and her
anti-vaccine movement.

Mainly her more deadly ilk like those
alternative medicine practitioners in Africa who fight against local
vaccination schemes. I must point out again the population of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and that of the UK are roughly the same
at around 60 million and the UK has a rather high measles rate of
around 1100 cases a year while the DRC with it's patch vaccination has
one where the mortality alone is around 1000 cases a year with nearly
100,000 cases a year. This article only emphasises that the actual
problem in Africa and indeed places like the UK is the anti-vaccine
stance with particular emphasis on the uptake of the MMR vaccine.

But the evidence of morphing pathogens doesn’t end there. A new study
has implicated evolving bacteria with the emergence of
vaccine-resistant pneumococcus strains, the same bacteria responsible
for causing pneumonia and meningitis infections. [6]

Actually...
If you read the article it points out that this isn't an effect of the
vaccine but a quirk of the bacteria which produces resistance to normal
immune systems which is why you can repeatedly get infected from
pneumococcus. This is a normal occurrence that the bacteria does even
when there is no vaccination.This isn't even the same things as the
other things. This is goddamn conjugation which is an entirely different
process from the previous allele frequency changes. This is best
explained via the fertility factor.

And this specific issue has more to do with antibiotic immunity than vaccine resistance. And this is where Bunny plows on.

These troubling findings are very reminiscent of concerns that were
raised after the over-prescribing of antibiotics. Scientists warned
early on that over-use and failing to finish ones prescription could
lead to bacterial resistance. [7]

No.
These are nothing like the overprescription of antibiotics. Vaccines
function by priming your immune system by mimicking an infection without
the negative effect. Antibiotics work by affecting bacteria directly.
And yes... failing to finish your prescription can lead to resistance
but guess which group of people routinely tell people to quit taking
antibiotics. It's certainly the group of people whose only qualification
is that they managed to have a child and who assume that this landmark
achievement allows them insight into the function of a human being that
medical personnel do not.

Many years later, after the emergence of antibiotic resistant
super-bugs like MRSA, both physicians and patients are now beginning to
re-examine their approach to illness. Isn’t this similar to what is
happening with vaccines? Consider this. Americans are the most
vaccinated population in the world.

Actually.
We can treat MRSA. Vancomycin, Ceftroline, linezolid, Daptomycin and
Teicoplanin all show activity against MRSA and combination therapies
show a lot of effect. In addition we have two new classes of antibiotics
(over Linezolid) undergoing testing including a 5th generation
cephalosporin, dalbavancin, iclaprim and neomonacin.

In addition
we are looking into defensin - 1, cannabinoids, platensimycin and
hydrogen peroxide dressings. Oh and we are also looking into phage
therapy which is entering human trial stages and shows a 95%
effectiveness rating.

So yeah. We do cure MRSA, it mainly harms
people who are heavily sick (And no it's not hospital acquired. 85% of
cases come from outside the hosptial) or have conditions like diabetes
where their high blood sugar helps the bacteria grow.

The
physician's re-examination of methodology due to MRSA is the use of
multiple drugs to treat diseases and insisting that the patient finishes
their antibiotics and not listen to anti-medical luddites. The argument
being made is that we shouldn't have treated all those sore throats

Here’s the shocking reality: Children following the CDC’s recommended
vaccine schedule will be injected with approximately 115 vaccine
antigens, and that’s just within the first two years of life! [8]

Oh
my! Antigens! 115 of them! An antigen is mainly made up of proteins and
polysaccharides and their associations with each other and with lipids
and nucleic acid. These are any such substance recognised by the body's
immune system.

Within seconds after birth the baby's immune
system is exposed to thousands of antigens in the bacteria of the world.
Within an hour it has taken it's first feed and is exposed to millions
of antigens in the milk of it's mother. The colostrum or first milk is
laden with antibodies. These antibodies are however foreign to the baby
and are recognised as such and destroyed. The baby begins to produce
antibodies to these antibodies. There are millions of them in each feed
the baby takes.

Every single surface, every single touch and
every single breath of air contains bacteria and viruses that the baby
is exposed to in the thousands at best and you really thing 115 antigens
over 2 years means anything? Our immune system deals with assaults on
it every second. A 115 antigens is nothing in one go. This is spread out
over two years. And indeed this ignores all the repeat doses. It's a
very naive approach to the issue and assumes that our body can only deal
with one pathogen at a time. The way immune systems work particularly
when vaccines are involved is that they process all the antigens
simultaneously. Since there is no pathogen load to worry about there is
no disease and the body is not strained. Basically? Macrophgages consume
the antigens and present them to naive T-Cells which produce a variety
of antigen equivalent antibodies. When a match is found the body shifts
to producing that type of T-Cell which produces the necessary
antibodies. Some of these T-Cells will remain after as memory cells
which reactivate in infection and rapidly flood the system with
antibodies if the antigen is detected. This isn't a conveyor belt.

Often
in a real infection the infective bacteria will produce multiple
antigens and the body will produce multiple antibodies to these. By
Bunny's logic we wouldn't be able to cope with such an event.

In my opinion, this is an outrageous amount. Similar to
over-prescribing antibiotics, it seems logical to step back and evaluate
the consequences of such a thing as over-vaccination, and whether
vaccination mandates are truly achieving the desired effects, or whether
our children are slowly falling prey to newly emerging forms of
historical illnesses.

In Bunny's Opinion
comprehension is not a valid skill and neither is a basic grasp of
science or mathematics. In her opinion as a lay person? In her opinion
as someone who doesn't understand medicine at all? In her opinion as an
individual who cannot explain how disease spreads? Or how immune systems
work? Pray explain why should we take her opinion on the subject
matter?

I wouldn't dream of telling NASA how to do
their job. You would have to be a madman to ask me to fix your car, and I
would have to be just as mad to claim that I could fix it. I know my
limitations as a human being. It's why I would hire a plumber if my
plumbing went wrong. It's why I prefer my house to be wired up by an
electrician rather than some yahoo who claims to know what he is doing.
And it's why taking medical advice to someone whose only qualification
is that she has achieved something that most women of the planet will
achieve is incredibly stupid.

It is people like her who are guilty of the foolishness of Speaking as a Mother.
Her assumption is that being a parent grants you innate knowledge of
human biology and medicine which entitles her to speak on the subject.
And it irks me since she is surrounded by a coven of sycophants who
basically feed her delusion that she can make healthcare decisions
regarding her children without any grasp of the subject material.
Actually, it's her children. For all I care she can believe in all the
magic water and fairy wings she likes as long as it's just them she is
screwing over. What irks me the most? Is that she is considered a voice
of healthcare when she cannot tell the difference between a gram
negative and gram positive bacteria and that she is encouraged to stand
up and give medical advice that she will never ever be held responsible
for. If you follow her advice and your child falls sick or dies then
there is nothing you can do. She is not responsible for her stupidity.
It's not her that pays the butcher's bill, it's people like your doctor
who have to clean up her mess when things go wrong.

People like Bunny
St. Marie only exists because vaccines eliminated major diseases making
them a thing of the past. To her they are as legendary as dragons. Only
diseases are real and still are around and they can come back if our
vaccination rate drops sufficiently as we have seen across Europe. Her
advice is functionally detrimental to your health. It is encouraging you
to face down dragons by being a virgin, wrapping yourself up in meat
and barbeque sauce while wearing wooden armour soaked in oil.